ATX PULSE 8/16/24: AISD CFO Cleared of Insurance Fraud // I-35 Width to Shrink // Arrest Made in ATX Cold Case After 44 Years // Local Gov't Causes Average Property Tax Increase of $1,000 // RRISD to Propose $1B Bond on Nov. Ballot (2024)

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FROM THE AUSTIN BASEBALL COMMISSION: Join a Committee!

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We aim to build the broadest and strongest community effort in city history.

>> Fill out the volunteer interest formhere.

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Today’s Weather: H: 101° / L: 77°. Same as yesterday. Latest forecast from Fox 7 Austin’s Adaleigh Rowehere.

TOP NEWS

“Austin ISD CFO won’t return to district despite being reinstated after arrest,” KVUE’s Morgan McGrath — “The chief financial officer for the Austin Independent School District has been cleared of any wrongdoing, but won't return to his role.

KVUE obtained the arrest warrant for Ramos from the Round Rock Police Department to investigate allegations of fraud, which authorities determined was not directly related to his work with the district.

However, the district said Thursday evening it would reinstate Ramos after learning the Williamson County District Attorney's Office would not prosecute any charges related to his personal affairs.

Superintendent Matias Segura initially said they were aware of the allegations against Ramos, but said his arrest "does not involve any alleged criminal activity related to his work" on behalf of the district, its staff, or students.

Ramos spent three years with the district where he managed state and national grants, purchases and budgets. He also spent time as the deputy superintendent of finance and operations for the Hutto Independent School District, along with time as CFO for the Pflugerville Independent School District.

Since Ramos initially submitted his resignation for Friday, Aug. 16, he will now leave the district in good standing.

When the school year begins on Aug. 20, Katrina Montgomery will take over the role of Austin ISD's CFO on an interim basis. It's unclear who will replace Ramos as the full-time CFO.” KVUE

“I-35 lane widths will shrink in Austin as TxDOT packs in more traffic,” KUT’s Nathan Bernier — “As the late morning sun beats down on the Tex-Best Travel Center in Kyle, truckers rest in their sleeper cabs while the white noise of I-35 roars a few steps away.

Pascual Fernandez, a seasoned truck driver with more than a decade of experience, is working on his Columbia Freightliner, a massive 18-wheeler used to haul tons of dirt around the busy construction sites of Central Texas.

The big rig measures 8 1/2 feet wide — the maximum legal limit in Texas. So Fernandez has concerns about a looming change coming to the Mexico-to-Canada freeway that slices through Central Austin.

The lanes will shrink 1 foot in width.

"If they narrow it, it’s going to be a little difficult," Fernandez said. "When it’s tight, it’s pretty hard. You gotta concentrate and really focus on what’s around you so you won’t hit them."

David Johnson, a truck driver from Atlanta working on his rig's running engine in the blistering Central Texas heat, shared Fernandez’s concerns.

"When you’re driving an 18-wheeler, man, you gotta be more aware, more careful of your surroundings,” Johnson said, clad in a pristine white tank top. "So I don’t know why — why would they do that?"

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is packing in more lanes through Travis County as part of the largest-ever expansion of I-35 in Austin. The biggest changes will happen through the center of the city, where four new "managed lanes" will be reserved exclusively for vehicles with more than one person inside.

TxDOT is narrowing the width of the lanes from 12-feet to 11-feet through most of Travis County including all of the highway from Ben White Boulevard to U.S. 290 East. The change is meant to squeeze in more capacity without farther expanding the interstate's new footprint, which is already pushing out more than 100 homes and businesses.” KUT

“Man arrested in connection with 44-year-old Austin cold case,” KVUE’s Yvonne Nava — “After more than four decades, a man has been charged in the death of a University of Texas at Austin nursing student.

On the night of Jan. 9, 1980, 25-year-old Susan Leigh Wolfe was kidnapped on Franklin Street while walking to her friend's house. A witness said a car, identified as a 1970 Dodge Polara, stopped and the driver got out, grabbed Wolfe, put a coat over her head and forced her into the car. The witness also said the passenger door opened, but he didn't see what the passenger did during the abduction.

The following morning, Wolfe's body was found in an alley at 2000 E. 17th St. Evidence showed she had been sexually assaulted, strangled and shot in the head.

In the first year of the investigation, Austin Police Department (APD) officers followed up on dozens of leads and interviewed at least six suspects out of more than 40 persons of interest. But ultimately, the case went cold.

Then in April 2023, detectives with the APD Cold Case Unit submitted DNA evidence to the Texas Department of Public Safety's Crime Laboratory.

In February of this year, APD received the test results and entered them into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a nationwide database of DNA profiles from convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence and missing persons.

On March 11, they got a match: 77-year-old Deck Brewer Jr., who is currently in prison in Massachusetts on a parole violation related to a 2006 kidnapping and rape conviction.

On June 10, the Travis County District Court found probable cause to issue a DNA search warrant to seize a DNA sample from Brewer Jr. On June 13, APD detectives executed that search warrant, obtaining a DNA sample from Brewer Jr. in Massachusetts and conducting a short interview with him. Brewer Jr. told police he had been in Austin and San Antonio around the time of Wolfe's murder, but invoked his right to counsel after he was told his DNA was found at the scene of a homicide.

On July 23, APD received the results of the direct comparison of Brewer Jr.'s DNA to the DNA found on Wolfe's body all those years ago. DPS ruled that Brewer Jr. "cannot be excluded as the contributor."

On Aug. 14, an arrest warrant was issued charging Brewer Jr. with Wolfe's murder.

However, the investigation is still ongoing. APD is still trying to find the passenger who was in the car when Wolfe was abducted. Anyone who has any information is asked to call the APD Cold Case Unit at 512-974-5250 or Crime Stoppers at 512-459-TIPS.” KVUE

THE BLOTTER

~ “SWAT situation: Search for suspect after 1 person injured in Northeast Austin,” Fox 7 Austin’s Jessica Rivera – “A SWAT situation in Northeast Austin ended with one person injured and police looking for a suspect.

The Austin Police Department says it received a call at around 12:45 a.m. about an incident at an apartment complex in the 4400 block of Airport Boulevard.

The Austin Police Department provides an update on the SWAT situation in the 4400 block of Airport Boulevard.

When officers arrived they discovered a man in his 40s with obvious signs of injury. That man was taken to the hospital where he is expected to be okay.

Police said it was believed that the suspect had gone back inside an apartment and locked the door. That's when SWAT was called.

The Travis County SWAT team is out at a situation in Northeast Austin near the 4400 block of Airport Boulevard. Jessica Rivera has the latest details.

After a few hours, it was determined that the suspect was not inside.

No description of the suspect has been released.” Fox 7 Austin

~ “Lakeway Police search for suspect involved in multiple antisemitic graffiti incidents,” CBS Austin’s Stephanie Becerra – “The Lakeway Police Department is working with neighboring law enforcement agencies to investigate several graffiti incidents first reported in March.

Police say a suspect is using spray paint to depict swastikas, racial slurs, and other effigies, on structures and vehicles. The graffiti incidents have been reported in random locations in the Lakeway area and multiple jurisdictions along the 620 corridor from April to August.

The graffiti does not appear to be targeting any specific individual, Lakeway police said in a Facebook post.

The suspect was caught on a home surveillance camera system in the most recent incident.

Police are asking anyone who identifies the subject or their vehicle in the video, to contact CID Sgt. Roman Pena at [emailprotected] or by phone at 512-261-2884. You can also submit a tip anonymously online.” CBS Austin

CITY HALL

~ “Taxes are rising, as are charges for city services,” Austin Monitor’s Jo Clifton – “Money paid by city of Austin taxpayers and Austin residents who pay monthly bills for water and wastewater, electricity, trash and recycling collection (as well as a drainage utility fee and a clean community fee) will see their cost-of-living increase starting in October. That’s pretty much the case every year, and this year the city and its residents have all had to contend with inflation.

Looking at those fees, the biggest jump is in the drainage utility fee, which is increasing from an average of $12.17 per month to $13.38 per month, or nearly 10 percent. According to the city budget office, this calculation was based on the property of a residential customer with 3,100 square feet or 37 percent impervious cover.

Austin Energy will receive the smallest percentage increase of the utilities. According to their calculations, a residential customer using 860 kilowatt hours per month has paid $119.26 per month. That same customer will pay $121.96 per month starting with the new fiscal year.

Austin Water figures its average residential customer uses 5,800 gallons of water and 4,000 gallons of wastewater monthly. In 2024, that usage resulted in a bill of $85 per month. Starting in October, the same customer using the same amount of water will pay $91.20 per month, an increase of 7.3 percent.

The clean community fee, assessed on every single-family home, will go up from $9.70 per month to $10.15 per month. Likewise, the transportation user fee will increase from $17.87 per month to $19.43 per month, an 8.7 percent increase.

Austin Resource Recovery, which provides collection of trash, recyclables and compostable materials, figured their residential customer rate increase example based on a 64-gallon cart, which is a medium-sized cart. Their fees will increase from $31.35 per month on average to $33.40.

As far as homeowners’ property tax bills, the city adopted an increase of 5.7 percent with a typical monthly bill increasing from $148.46 per month to $156.98 per month for a median non-senior homestead.

According to a city spokesperson, “The City of Austin offers the maximum allowable general homestead exemption of 20 percent of the assessed value of qualifying homes. In order to qualify for this exemption, the property must be owned and occupied as the owner’s principal residence. Once the exemption is granted, homeowners do not need to reapply on an annual basis.”

The city also offers an additional exemption for disabled homeowners and those aged 65 and older. This provides an additional tax exemption for $154,000 of the assessed value of the homestead.

The spokesperson concluded, “Property owners already receiving a general homestead exemption who turn 65 are not required to apply for this exemption if accurate birthday information is already included in the appraisal district records. As with the general homestead exemption, homeowners do not need to reapply for these exemptions on an annual basis once granted.”” Austin Monitor

~ “Typical Austin homeowner could pay nearly $1k more in property taxes next fiscal year,” KXAN’s Grace Reader – “Local governments and tax entities are approving their tax rates and budgets for fiscal year 2024-25, which means the decisions they make now will impact your wallet before the end of the calendar year.

Adding it all up — if Central Texas entities move forward with their proposed tax rate increases and you vote for additional bumps in tax rate on your November ballot — the average homeowner could pay roughly $950 more next fiscal year, or roughly $80 more a month.

That’s only calculating how much more you’ll pay in proposed or approved tax rate increases from local entities, not individual property value increases. Your property taxes are greatly impacted by the value of your home and homestead exemption qualifications.

~ “Builders can now construct homes on less land, as Austin’s new minimum lot size goes into effect,” KUTs Audrey McGlinchy – “A controversial rule that lowers the amount of land needed to build one house in Austin goes into effect Friday. Landowners wanting to build a home in some city neighborhoods will now need 1,800 square feet of land, about two-thirds less than the old requirement.

City Council members voted on this change, coined HOME Phase 2, in May. Theoretically, a landowner with an 8,000-square-foot lot, which is close to the median lot size in the city, could split that up into four pieces of land, erecting one home on each.

By cutting the city’s long-standing minimum lot size by more than half, elected officials have said they hope it will be easier to build more homes in central neighborhoods. More homes in popular neighborhoods, they reason, could lower overall housing costs and provide current homeowners with the option to sell off a portion of their backyard.

But developers who build in these same neighborhoods, often called “infill developers” because they “fill in” places where homes already exist, say other changes are needed before they’ll take advantage of being able to split up a piece of land.

The biggest issue, builders say, is the current subdivision process. In order to break up, say, a 6,000-square-foot lot into several smaller ones, an owner needs to apply for the right to subdivide. That process can take years and cost upward of tens of thousands of dollars.

“Right now the subdivision process is too costly and too lengthy to make sense for smaller-scale projects,” Brita Wallace, a board member of the Austin Infill Coalition, said. Two other builders KUT spoke with echoed Wallace’s thoughts. City staffers are working on simplifying this process, but it’s not clear when those changes will be ready for a vote by Council.

Those in favor of lowering the city’s minimum lot size heralded the vote in May as historic. For nearly eight decades, Austin required landowners to have at least 5,750 square feet of land before building one home. This rule, called minimum lot size, effectively ensured that as developers built more homes, the city grew to resemble a suburb more than an urban center.

This historic vote was also controversial. Dozens of people testified in front of Council members for more than 12 hours, prompting Council members to extend their vote into a second day.” KUT

BUSINESS NEWS

~ “Developers behind Leander’s lagoon project appear to owe millions to contractors,” Austin Business Journal’s Justin Sayers – “On Oct. 15, 2020, then-Leander Mayor Troy Hill stood in front of City Hall and declared it to be a "great day."

City leadership was fresh off announcing a public-private partnership with Austin-based iLand Development Group to bring a $1 billion mixed-use project centered around a 4-acre lagoon to the small, but growing, Austin suburb — a project he said "doesn't come along very often."

"For Leander, it's just one more aspect... of making us probably the best town in Central Texas for sure –possibly the entire state of Texas," Hill said, while flanking a yellow surfboard, joking that the next time you'd see him with it he would be using it.

iLand CEO Andrey Derevianko pointed to the rendering of the project at his right and detailed the white-sand Caribbean beaches, boardwalk with restaurants, full-service hotel and crystalline water that he said it would take more than a decade to build out.

"It would be great to have a groundbreaking ceremony next week,"Derevianko said at the time, "but more likely next year."

Excitement surrounding the project carried over the next several months before coming to a halt. Even though the development team secured final zoning and other approvals in 2021, the 78-acre site at the corner at Farm to Market Road 2243 and the 183A frontage remains untouched, devoid of the 1,600 multifamily units, hotel and 1 million square feet of commercial space that was promised. The city earlier this year terminated the $22 million agreement for incentives after the developer missed construction deadlines on the first phase.

Now, those who worked on the project appear to be unpaid, too, an Austin Business Journal investigation has found. More than a dozen liens have been filed against iLand Development Group in Williamson County for work on Leander Springs and an eight-acre project on Anderson Mill Road that some companies said they did simultaneous work for.

The liens total about $3 million – only $800,000 of which appears to have been paid off, according to ABJ research.” ABJ ($)

2024

~ “Round Rock ISD trustees call for $1B bond to appear on Nov. 5 ballot,” Community Impact Austin’s Brooke Sjoberg – “Four propositions asking Round Rock ISD voters to approve just under $1 billion will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot, after trustees voted to order a bond election Aug. 15.

What happened?

Trustees voted 5-2 to call the election, asking voters to approve up to $998,135,000 to fund capital improvements in the following areas:

Trustees, district staff and the RRISD's Citizens Bond Committee, chaired by Fabian Cuero and Lindsey Ledyard, narrowed an original $1 billion-$1.5 billion proposal to just under $1 billion in projects to address several areas of needed maintenance to capital assets within the district.

What we know

Initially, projects included in the bond proposal totaled $1.13 billion. The dollar amounts of the four propositions under consideration have changed slightly as the district worked to prepare a final bond proposal, which sits just under $1 billion—$998,135,000:

The impact

To fund the potential bond projects, a few scenarios were presented to the board. Per Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez, the district could take on up to $1 billion in bond projects and actually lower the debt service tax rate from $0.1980 per $100 of valuation for fiscal year 2024-25 to $0.1880 per $100 of valuation, a decrease of one-cent per $100 of valuation.” Community Impact Austin

SPORTS

~ SAN ANTONIO SPURS: “Spurs to face off with Kevin Durant, Suns in third I-35 series in Austin,” San Antonio Express-News’ Cristela Jones — “Fresh off his fourth Olympic gold medal, one of Austin's biggest basketball stars is headed back to Texas to play its winningest NBA franchise for one-night only. This season the San Antonio Spurs will host Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns as part of its third annual I-35 series in Austin.

In the first of two homes games, the Spurs will take on the Suns on February 20, 2025, then the Detroit Pistons on February 21, 2025 at the Moody Center. The news comes as the Silver & Black continues to expand their presence in the state's capital city and beyond.

"It's just a validation of all the hard work and efforts that our group has been putting in for the intentionality around Austin, and we're just extremely excited for the fans to get to experience that atmosphere once again," Brandon James, Spurs senior vice president of strategic growth, said at a press conference in Austin on Thursday, August 15.” SAEN

~ LLWS: “Little League World Series: Boerne LL slams to 9-0 win in opening game,” KXAN’s Billy Gates — “Boerne Little League made quite a statement in its opening game at the Little League World Series on Thursday in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Representing the Southwest region in the tournament, Boerne exploded for six runs in the fifth inning to run away from the Mid-Atlantic region team from Newtown, Pennsylvania 9-0 to advance in the winner’s bracket. …

Boerne will play the winner of Friday’s game between the Northwest region (Puyallup, Washington) and Southeast region (Lake Mary, Florida) at 6 p.m. CDT, Monday.” KXAN

~ TEXAS VOLLEYBALL: “What Texas volleyball’s Madisen Skinner thinks about her chances to play in 2028 Olympics,” Austin American-Statesman’s Thomas Jones — “As Madisen Skinner found out in France, sitting in the stands watching her team play for a championship is more challenging than being on the court.

And make no mistake. For Skinner, the U.S. Olympic women’s volleyball team is her team. The 6-foot-2 centerpiece of the Texas volleyball squad and the returning national player of the year competed for the U.S. at the Volleyball Nations League tournament earlier in the summer in Brazil, where she lined up alongside most of the players on the Olympic team. Skinner’s older sister, Avery, finished second on the Olympic team in points.

“Just to be able to see them compete was really cool,” Skinner said before a team practice Wednesday at Gregory Gymnasium in the heart of the Texas campus. “I obviously competed with them, so being a spectator is completely different and a lot more stressful. But it was really cool just to watch, and then obviously my sister's going out and crushing it. They finished with silver, which is incredible. It was great to be there in person and experience it in that personal way.”

The 23-year-old Skinner will likely have a chance for an even better view of the action in 2028, when the Games return to Los Angeles. An explosive leaper who’s gotten wilier on the outside after starting her volleyball career at middle blocker, Skinner can also contribute on the back row with her passing and quick defensive feet.” AAS ($)

AUSTIN CULTURE

~ DINING:”Buzzy Austin restaurant Elementary closes after just one year” Culture Map Austin

~ FALL EVENTS:”Austin Parks Foundation shares fall calendar with free movies, yoga, and more” Culture Map Austin

WHAT TO DO THIS WEEKEND

FRI

~ LIVE MUSIC: Bob Schneider and Mitch Watkins. The 04 Center (2801 S. Lamar Blvd.) Doors at 7pm, sjow at 8pm. Tix $28 here.

~ LIVE MUSIC: Monte Montgomery and James Speer. Antone’s (downtown). Doors at 7pm, show at 8pm. Tix $28 here. ** GO SEE MONTE HE’S INCREDIBLE!

~ LIVE MUSIC: Alejandro Escovedo and David Ramirez (Gruene Hall, Gruene). Show at 8pm. $35. Info here.

SUN

~ LIVE MUSIC: Santana with Counting Crows. Moody Center. Doors at 6pm, show at 7pm. Tix $47.50 and up here.

~ COMEDY: Sean Payton (Comedy Mothership, downtown). 8pm. Tix $5 and up here.

WEEKEND

~ FILM: Hitchco*ck Week (Paramount Theater, 713 Congress Ave). Thru Aug. 18. Full schedule here.

~ DANCE: Cirque de Soleil Songblazers. Bass Concert Hall (UT campus). 7pm. Tix $43 and up here.

COOL JOB ALERT

~ Policy Specialist: State Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood). Salary: $50k-$70k. Info / apply here.